On Monday 19 June, Lisa will begin her new position as Merrin School's librarian.

For the first few days the previous library leader, Amanda Simpson, will work alongside Lisa so she becomes familiar with Merrin's library systems and how to best support the children and teachers. 

Lisa is married to Peter and has a 7-year old son, Logan, who loves Lego and reading Captain Underpants. She worked at Christchurch City Libraries in the Children's section of the Central Library before the earthquake, and afterwards she helped bring library services to schools. In her spare time, Lisa plays a LOT of board games, reads, is part of a quiz team, has watched all 32 seasons of Survivor and is trying to get out on her mountain bike more.

From 1997 - 2015, Lisa worked for Christchurch City Libraries, mostly with children and young adults. She has lots of experience promoting library services to children, using a range of techniques and technologies. Lisa has helped run city-wide reading promotions and visited many schools with the Travelling Roadshow and technology programmes. She has also had a lot of experience linking library services with the curriculum and learning outcomes so this will be a great benefit to teachers.

Lisa also has a strong set of technical skills using a variety of software. Lisa's believes that a full range of library services has so much to offer children. She believes every child has 'their book' (or eBook, or website, or audio book) and it’s a privilege to be able to help them find it. Helping parents and teachers find resources to help foster a love of reading is also something that she enjoys and thinks is very important.

Welcome, Lisa - we are very lucky to have you!